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Publisher's Summary

On a hot summer Texas afternoon, Cindy Nance introduces young Doug Hoover to the two great secrets of life. Doug likes the first secret a lot. The second, that guys grow up and go to work, doesn't appeal to him at all. A series of meaningless marriages and do-nothing jobs prove Cindy was right. Turned off by the present, Doug tries to recapture the joys of his past: Captain Marvel and cinnamon squares, Dr. Pepper and window-peeking fun. Nothing goes right until Doug meets Sue Jean, the culmination of a lifetime enchantment with mean-eyed Southern girls, his all-time carhop queen. Reality takes a hard right and never slows down. Doug, Sue Jean, and listeners who can hang on tight are swept through an indescribable romp that gives new meaning to life, death, and roadside romance.

Critic Reviews

"The Hereafter Gang is a posthumous fantasy. Like similar work by a wide variety of writers, from Vladimir Nabokov to Flann O'Brien, from John Crowley to Gene Wolfe, it tells of a hero who, after the death of the body, must sift through the materials of the life he has left in order to make sense of his naked soul.... It is one of the great American novels." (The Washington Post)

"A remarkable piece of work...that keeps the glamour of the novel screaming ahead at a high quantum level all the way through. The Hereafter Gang is the charm of the author's voice. Barrett knows how to write economically and evocatively.... His characters are earthy, bawdy, sensual, and dimensional. In other words, they live." (Locus)

"Barrett has an ear for the bedlam din of urban Texas, and a storytelling voice which deposes matters of great subtlety with great shouts, and an exuberance which glows in the dark, and he's hilarious." (John Clute)

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Customer Reviews

Whimsical and Poignant

I would. There are a lot of levels to this story, and the narrators voice captures the characters and the laid back pacing perfectly.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably Sue Jean. Particularly after you get the entire story of the characters and come to realize why she acts as she does in the earlier segments of the story.

Which scene was your favorite?

I believe it would involve fighter planes and Jesus, but if I was to explain that, it would ruin an important part of the story.

If you could rename The Hereafter Gang, what would you call it?

Roundup at the Drive-Inn Corral

Any additional comments?

This is the sort of slow-burning story that sticks with you. When you listen, you get drawn in - you feel like you know all of the characters, and as it gets stranger and stranger, it happens subtly so that nothing strikes you as off-kilter until...it is. I would recommend this book to anyone, though there is some adult content that would be inappropriate for teen listeners.